“Pizza Marzano [as it is known in China] is a British company and its management are British people who are not familiar with Chinese culture. We never intended to offend Chinese people,” the statement said ….

A netizen called Amoy asked: “Is Pizza Marzano suggesting that the Chinese did not have enough dark days under colonial control? Do they want to prolong that control …?”

… Gu Xiaoming, a history professor with the Cultural Heritage Protection Department of Fudan University, said outrage was understandable ….

Gu also urged expats to learn more about the history of Shanghai and stop calling the area “the French Concession”.

For now, the name is in common use by expats and Western media; English-language Chinese media such as Shanghai Daily and China Daily do use the term, but generally refer to the “old” or “former French Concession”.